A new book compiling 25 contemporary studies on food safety in Africa’s informal markets offers (surprising) lessons for much of the developing world. Continue reading
ILRI wishes all its partners, investors, friends, colleagues and former staff a Very Happy Valentine’s Day. Continue reading
A new compilation of 25 studies in Africa finds that informal markets provide essential sources of food and income for millions of poor, with milk and meat that is often safer than supermarkets. Misguided efforts to control the alarming burden of food-related illnesses in low-income countries risk intensifying malnutrition and poverty — while doing little to improve food safety. Blunt crack-downs on informal milk and meat sellers that are a critical source of food and income for millions of people are not the solution. Continue reading
All fine artwork on this page is by Olivia Pendergast (see note below for more information). In the last quarter of 2014 a book was published and launched on climate change and public health. Edited by Colin Butler, of the University of Canberra, and published by CABI, the book brings together 56 authors from 19 … Continue reading
ILRI director general Jimmy Smith made a keynote presentation at the 6th All African Conference on Animal Agriculture (AACAA), held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, in Nairobi, Kenya, 27–29 Oct 2014. The slide presentation is above and a summary below. Continue reading
Highlights of the 40-year anniversary event of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) held at the institute’s headquarters in the Kabete suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, last week (1 Oct 2014). Continue reading
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) organized the CTA-ILRI African dairy value chain seminar from 21 to 24 September 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya. Continue reading
Impacts of climate change on length of growing periods in Africa by Philip Thornton The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has published an atlas illustrating the current state of African smallholder agriculture. The Atlas of African Agriculture Research and Development comprises a series of maps and short analyses that showcase and locate the continent’s diverse agricultural … Continue reading
An average of less than 1,000 millimeters of rain falls per year across most of Africa (Map 1). Rainfall tends to decrease with distance from the equator and is negligible in the Sahara (north of about latitude 16°N), in eastern Somalia, and in the southwest of the continent in Namibia and South Africa. Rainfall is most abundant on the eastern seaboard of Madagascar; portions of the highlands in eastern Africa; large areas of the Congo Basin and central Africa; and parts of coastal western Africa including Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. Continue reading
Ruminant livestock are raised across large parts of Africa where environmental conditions allow. Cattle, sheep, and goats are the most widespread, while camels are restricted to drier areas, particularly in the Horn of Africa and the arid parts of western Africa. These maps of ruminant distribution should, however, be used in conjunction with the livestock production systems map to better understand the systems and climate zones where ruminant livestock are found. The role of livestock varies greatly depending on the production system. Continue reading
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